Do you Sanitize Your RO/DI unit?

Well figured I would post about this wanted to spread the word. I noticed with my ro/di that my TDS was creeping up so of course I ordered new Filters/Resin/Membrane (Was Due). In this I was looking inside the membrane housing and it was that nasty old orange color we all know from our lovely tap water. I did some reasearch and found out that its good to sanitize your system once a year. Now this being said this is not the law on having a RO/DI but in my case I figured id give it a try. I am currently running bleach through it and will flush it for quite a long time before I put my new filters in also will be flushing and testing the water for clorine once im done to make sure its all out!

Do you sanitize?

 

This makes me nervous I'm afraid of messing up my unit. I'm totally new to the ro/di world.

 

Yea it said to use soap did not go that far but I sanitize alot with bleach on other things so figured id give it a shot. will post the test results let the bleach solution flow through it for about 15 minutes. then im gonna let it flush for about 12 hours then completely dry for 2-3 days. I have a 100g ro tank so I can do this some people prob would not want to be running out of water or be scared cuz they make water as they need it. I also run granular carbon on my ro/di storage tank so that would catch ne xtra but will see gonna put my new filters in. and in a few days run some through and test for clorine and see what shows up.

You would not believe some of the nastyness that came out of it. But like i said its been running for a year or so...

 

UPDATE

So right now with all new filters after cleaning this and running it for 5 minutes after new filters and membrane were installed im getting 4TDS from the RO unit and 0TDS on the DI stage.

normal water here is 450TDS

Also took a sample of the first gallon of water made and 0 clorine was detected by the kit

im pretty sure it helped

thanks

 

Yes I do disinfect my RO/DI system every 6 months and I have posted the instructions on this and most every other reef forum hundreds of times over the last 8 or 10 years. Disinfection is a CRITICAL part of RO membrane maintanance and should be done no less than annually, I do it every 6 months at filter changes since it only takes about 5 minutes start to finish and 3 tablespoons of bleach. No reason not do do it since the system is apart anyway for filte rchanges.

I have personally seen people hospitalized due to lack of maintenance of a RO drinking water system on more than one occasion and its not a pretty sight! Its just as important for our fish and corals even if you don't drink the RO water which I do myself and have done so for almost 20 years.

My tap water TDS is about 560 right now and my RO only is between 2 and 3 with RO/DI at 0.

 

Do you run the bleach solution through the membrane as well as the housings?

 

No, do a search for my instructions and you see directions on how to either disconnect the membrane housing or remove the membrane for sanitizing. Chlorine will melt a RO membrane in a heartbeat, this is the reason we have carbon blocks to remove the chlorine before the membrane.

 

Thanks AZ!